Still no suspects in Peabody rooftop killing; police offering reward

Thursday

Nov 8, 2012 at 5:19 PM

No one has called the Police Department with tips about the killer who left Dylan Thomas Tharp on the Peabody's roof Nov. 3.

LYDA LONGASTAFF WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH — With no suspect and no motive in the beating death of a man found nude atop the city's Peabody Auditorium, Police Chief Mike Chitwood said Thursday he believes the case will be solved forensically. The chief said no one has called the Police Department with tips about the killer who left Dylan Thomas Tharp on the Peabody's roof Nov. 3. The body was discovered that afternoon after 2 p.m. and now police are offering a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of a suspect. Meanwhile, Tharp's girlfriend said she was with the 30-year-old hours before he was killed. Kim Watts said Tharp wanted to stay home that Friday evening to read a novel. But she wanted the couple and a neighbor to go out to a beachside bar so they could relax after a hard week of painting houses. Watts also wanted to celebrate Tharp's birthday and her own, Oct. 26 and Nov. 1, respectively. Thursday the 52-year-old Watts said she has no idea why Tharp would have been on top of the Peabody Auditorium. That's what police are trying to figure out. "Why would you beat someone and take their clothes?" Chitwood said Thursday. From the start, Chitwood labeled the case "strange." He said climbing the two-story structure was a challenge in itself, probably something that no one in their right mind would attempt. "It takes an act of Congress to get up to that roof," the chief said. "There are a series of pipes that you have to climb before you get to the first ladder. It's like rock climbing." But since the discovery of Tharp's body on Nov. 3 by a theater maintenance worker and after a burglary a month ago at the auditorium, getting up on the roof of the Peabody will no longer be possible. Helen Riger, administrator of the city's Cultural Services division — which runs the Peabody — said the ladders were taken down Monday. "We checked with the Fire Department and they said it was fine," Riger said. "They can access the roof with their ladders." The ladders were initially installed along the exterior of the auditorium so repairmen could have access to the air conditioners. Now the only way to the roof is via the inside of the theater, Riger said. Watts said she and Tharp were together daily, working. She said he would go to Bethune Point Park sometimes to perform stunts with his trick bicycle. She said she has no idea why he would have climbed up on the auditorium roof, except perhaps because he was angry. "We had an argument at the bar and he said he was going to walk home," Watts said. "His friend Jeff told me that as he (Tharp) walked, he called Jeff from his cellphone twice. The last time was around 1:30 a.m." When Watts last saw Tharp, he was wearing blue jeans that were torn at the knees, brown suede sneakers and a tan-colored Iron Horse Saloon T-shirt. He was also wearing a ballcap stained with house paint. Chitwood said the only thing Tharp had on when he was found was a pair of dark socks. Earlier this week, Tharp's parents, Richard and Jane Tharp, called their son "a very nice kid." They said he lived with them until he left earlier this year looking for work after a friend told him to come to Daytona Beach. Richard Tharp said the family owns and lives in an 1830s hotel in Danbury, N.C., a rural town of 189 residents in the mountains near the Virginia border. Tharp was helping his father restore the hotel. "There is no work here in this jive hole we live in," Richard Tharp said angrily. "We live in the mountains." Watts said Tharp was looking forward to seeing his parents on Thanksgiving; he was hoping to buy a bus ticket home. "He was going up there to spend a nice Thanksgiving with his family and then he was coming back," Watts said. Anyone with information concerning the case is asked to call Daytona Beach police, 386-671-5100.